greylensman
420 Member
I can't bring myself to call this stuff soil. This is my first mistake. First major mistake.
It was winter, and I was already at Home Depot and they had "Organic Potting Soil".
Nature's Care. By Miracle Gro. I should have been warned by the actual twigs present in the stuff, plus it was clumped together. It settled like clay, and had a strange grey threading floating on top.
But - Organic!. And available. So I started my seedlings in it. One did ok, several others were a bit small after three weeks, and one had obvious nutrient issues. Those issues didn't improve after a couple of nutrient feedings.
I went to a local nursery and got 5 bags of very frozen Fox Farms Ocean/Forest. I finally realized the only way to save that one very bad off plant was to transplant it into a different soil, I suspected that there was something wrong with the Natures Care soil. I figured I would transplant this one bad off plant and then see how the rest go - maybe I could treat this stuff like a neutral medium and gradually work it back to a soil the plants could thrive in and avoid transplanting the rest.
When I transplanted that bad-off plant I found the roots were tangled around the peat disk they started in as a seedling - and none were willing to go beyond that original peat disk - they were treating the Miracle Grow Nature's Care as poisonous and hostile. They had been feeding and rooting exclusively in that very small seedling peat pot.
I transplanted all the plants at once, and added Superthrive to buffer the shock. Most of the plants had behaved exactly like the first - they simply avoided the Miracle Gro organic Nature's Care entirely and tried to live off the peat pot they started in. So far (three days) the plants seem ok and even to be perking up.
Nature's Care Organic Potting Soil is not soil. It is not plant-friendly. <
Complete Crap >
It was winter, and I was already at Home Depot and they had "Organic Potting Soil".
Nature's Care. By Miracle Gro. I should have been warned by the actual twigs present in the stuff, plus it was clumped together. It settled like clay, and had a strange grey threading floating on top.
But - Organic!. And available. So I started my seedlings in it. One did ok, several others were a bit small after three weeks, and one had obvious nutrient issues. Those issues didn't improve after a couple of nutrient feedings.
I went to a local nursery and got 5 bags of very frozen Fox Farms Ocean/Forest. I finally realized the only way to save that one very bad off plant was to transplant it into a different soil, I suspected that there was something wrong with the Natures Care soil. I figured I would transplant this one bad off plant and then see how the rest go - maybe I could treat this stuff like a neutral medium and gradually work it back to a soil the plants could thrive in and avoid transplanting the rest.
When I transplanted that bad-off plant I found the roots were tangled around the peat disk they started in as a seedling - and none were willing to go beyond that original peat disk - they were treating the Miracle Grow Nature's Care as poisonous and hostile. They had been feeding and rooting exclusively in that very small seedling peat pot.
I transplanted all the plants at once, and added Superthrive to buffer the shock. Most of the plants had behaved exactly like the first - they simply avoided the Miracle Gro organic Nature's Care entirely and tried to live off the peat pot they started in. So far (three days) the plants seem ok and even to be perking up.
Nature's Care Organic Potting Soil is not soil. It is not plant-friendly. <
Complete Crap >
